Odium
by xstormqueenx
Summary: Vivien learns that hatred comes in many forms. {One-shot, Season 3, AU}.


**Author's Note: **_Odium _is part of my Doctor Who/Falling Skies crossover series, the reading order of which is listed on my profile, including one-shots etc. Videos for characters canon and original, can be found on my Youtube channel via the link on my profile.

* * *

**Odium**

"Vivien Holmes?"

"Cochise?" Vivien exclaimed, startled to her feet by the sight of purple blood dripping down his face.

"It is merely a graze, Vivien Holmes," Cochise said, sitting down on the edge of the seat.

"It doesn't look like one to me," Vivien snapped, hastily washing her hands.

Cochise didn't say anymore, remaining silent as Vivien cleaned him up. When she made to bandage his wound, he halted her with his hand, saying it wouldn't be necessary.

"Who did this to you, Cochise?" Vivien asked quietly, clutching the roll of dressing for almost dear life.

"Nobody did anything to me."

"Then why did you come here for treatment instead of your base?"

"I did not require treatment, Vivien Holmes," Cochise reminded her reasonably, "but I thought it expedient that I be examined."

"Fine, you don't need stitches, but it doesn't change the fact someone did this to you," Vivien said, setting the roll of dressing down. "And don't palm me off with platitudes, it's as clear as day you've been attacked. I might not be a fully qualified combat medic but I've seen enough war wounds to tell the difference between a scrape and a sortie."

"How is the hatchling?" Cochise said suddenly, gesturing to her baby bump.

"Ready to hatch," Vivien snapped, "now who hit you?"

Cochise contemplated her for a long moment, before looking away.

"Who did this to you?" Vivien repeated. "I need to know so Tom can deal with them."

"You cannot tell the Chief!"

Vivien took a step back, stunned at Cochise raising his voice to her.

"I am sorry, Vivien Holmes," Cochise apologized, averting his gaze from hers, "but your mate cannot know."

"Why?"

"Because... because it was his son."

* * *

Vivien waddled down the corridor, the tails of her white medical coat flapping behind her as she moved, trying not to wince as the baby kicked in protest. After her confrontation with Cochise, she couldn't see straight with rage, marching out of the cubicle to find Matt and give him a piece of her mind. Even though Cochise had said Matt had been pressurised into throwing the stone, plainly not wanting to, it didn't change the fact he'd flung it. Who was he going to attack next? Her? She was almost as alien as Cochise was.

She glanced ahead, barely registering the group of teenagers approaching her. As they drew level with her, she tried to go round them, but one of them barged into her, knocking her off-balance, sending her sideways into the wall. She hit the concrete at a rush, pain suddenly ricocheting through her, making her fall to the floor, the baby kicking in earnest now, her hand flying instinctively to her belly. Mocking laughter dinned into her skull as several shadows fell across hers, almost blocking out the dim light. In vain, she tried to get up, but it was only to be roughly pushed back down again.

"Stay on your knees, bitch," one of the voices spat. "That's how our great leader likes you best, isn't it?"

"Hybrid whore" -

The next thing she knew, they were scattering, Ben appearing out of nowhere, pinning the ring-leader against the wall.

"Got anything else to say before I break your neck?" Ben said from between gritted teeth.

"Yeah, go to hell, razorback" -

Ben head-butted him in the face, blood exploding everywhere. Before Vivien could react, the boy was lying in a heap of limbs on the ground, Ben coldly and methodically booting him in the ribs, not slowing, not stopping, not even when Vivien screamed at him to, unable to believe this was Ben, gentle, soft-spoken Ben -

"He was going to do this to you," Ben hissed, whirling on her, "do you think any of them would have told him to stop?"

"You're going to kill him!"

"He was going to kill the baby!"

Vivien buried her face in her hands, unable to stop the terrible sob escaping her throat, unable to believe what had happened, what was happening. It was only then that Ben finally stopped, his face feral, his eyes wild with the hate he felt for those who hated him; for those who had made him what he was. Its intensity terrified Vivien into silence, making her huddle against the wall, wrapping her arms around herself, trying to hold herself together when she was falling apart.

* * *

The Doctor finished checking Vivien over, before steering her over the cracked white leather sofa, his face pale with fury. After Ben had escorted Vivien to her quarters, he had ran for the Doctor, explaining in broken sentences what had happened. It was upon leaving the infirmary that they'd passed the boy Ben had beaten being brought in by stretcher, the Doctor casting him a coldly contemptuous glance, ignoring the porter's request for assistance, directing him to an annoyed Dr. Glass instead, disregarding the fact she had her own hands full.

"She's alright, a little shaken, but alright," the Doctor said to Ben, struggling to keep his voice steady. "If she needs it, I'll mix a mild sedative and bring it over" -

\- "I don't need a goddamn sedative," Vivien hissed, half rising from the sofa.

"Sit down!" the Doctor snapped, his rage forcing her to reluctantly obey. He turned to Ben again. "You should send for your father," he said starkly, "he has to know what his apparently adoring public are getting up to when his back's turned."

"He can't know!" Vivien cried, tears springing to her eyes. "He'll flip his lid, man!"

"Of course he will," the Doctor said coldly, "they were going to kill his child."

Vivien stared at him, her lower lip trembling. "If he finds out, he won't let me leave this room," she said, her voice cracking, "he'll have me under house arrest and under armed guard twenty-four seven. I'll be buried alive, more than I am already" -

\- "What, and that's more important than your baby's safety?" the Doctor snarled, looming over her. "Get your goddamn head in the game, Vivien! Your baby comes first, not you!"

"What about Ben, then?" Vivien retorted, gesturing wildly to her silent step-son, her thoughts flickering to his younger brother and the stone he had thrown at Cochise, almost like it was the tripwire that had set off her own torment. "What's going to happen when it gets out the President's razorback son attacked a human?" Her words made Ben sharply glance up at her, his face paling at the insult.

"He was protecting you!" the Doctor yelled, jabbing a long finger at her.

"That's not what they'll say," Vivien spat, "they'll say it was an unprovoked attack, that Ben's a monster and I deserve all I get, if not more. Some woman the other day said I should be put down, that I had no right to exist - I won't undermine what Tom's trying to build any more than I already am, Doctor!"

"Get your father, Ben," the Doctor instructed, ignoring her. "It's time he knew the truth."

* * *

Vivien leant her head against Tom's broad chest, before resting her hand on her bump, Tom laying his large hand over hers. As Vivien had predicted, Tom had flipped his lid, spectacularly and violently. He'd been chairing a meeting in the War Room when Ben had interrupted the proceedings, asking in a voice that shook if he could speak to his father in private. Tom had held himself together until he reached his own quarters before exploding, nearly ripping the room apart with his rage. He had been unable to do anything other than shout and smash things up, Vivien sitting on the sofa, her face buried in her hands, the Doctor and Ben beside her, waiting for Tom to calm down.

In the end, it was the Doctor who had taken control, summoning Anthony, who swiftly took the situation in hand, ordering a search to be carried out for her attackers, the ringleader being placed under arrest and armed guard, the sight of his bed surrounded by soldiers provoking much comment and speculation. But once it got out that the First Lady had been attacked, the news spread like wildfire around Charleston, many making toasts and raising glasses to the tidings in Pope's bar until Pope ordered them out, not wanting to shit in his own backyard by hosting an insurrection.

Those who Vivien had once deemed the 'Old Guard' had descended, Tector, Anne, Lourdes, Anthony, Deni, Maggie wheeling Hal through the door, all concerned, none surprised. Unlike Tom, they didn't live in a glass tower, imagining aliens, humans and everything in-between could live in harmony together. They saw the world for what it was, not what Tom wanted it to be. He was playing happy families with a hybrid, and while they had no problem with that, others did, for in their prejudiced eyes, he had committed a cardinal sin in falling in love with someone different from himself, and for that, he had to be punished.

Matt's absence was overlooked by all but Vivien, yet she was grateful he was gone, being unable to bear his hypocrisy if he was before her. She had come to love the Mason boys like they were her own, but everything had changed after coming to Charleston. Hal was a man now, Ben hard on his heels, and Matt was no longer her brown-eyed boy she could baby and balance on her hip. He was slipping out of her reach, and she didn't know how to save him, to stop herself from losing him. He was becoming infected with odium, starting to hate anything that wasn't human, beginning to hate her for what she had become.

"I'm sorry," Tom said, startling Vivien, making her glance up at him in surprise.

"Sorry for what?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

"For not being there," Tom said, his own voice cracking, "for not protecting you."

Vivien looked away, before standing up and waddling over to the far wall, her gaze falling upon the painting Tom liked so of a sea caught in the deepest throes of a storm, its falling skies dark and tormented. She always felt uncomfortable when Tom started talking like this, like she was his chattel; not a person, but his property. He usually made these sort of speeches in the darkest depths of the night, murmuring in her ear that he was going to keep her and their child safe, his arms unconsciously tightening around her, Vivien tolerating his pillow talk because it seemed to oddly steady him, reassuring him even.

Whilst Tom was no chauvinist, he seemed to feel Vivien was a thing of fragility, something he had to shield, and it always irked her, no more than now. She and the Doctor had always protected each other, mutually meeting on an equal footing, but with Tom it was different. _He _saved _her_, she _didn't _save him, and ever since she had fallen pregnant, it had become even worse, Tom treating her like she was made of porcelain, his touch almost reverential, the expression in his eyes verging on veneration. She half wondered if this was what unconsciously fuelled some of his rage, angry that the shrine he had made out of her had been violated, desecrated and almost destroyed.

"It's not your job to protect me," Vivien said suddenly, turning around to face him, "so stop acting as if it is."

Tom stared at her, his face incredulous. "It's not about it being my 'job'," he said in disbelief, "it's about it being because I want to. I love you and I love our baby, and part of that love is protecting you both."

"You're not your father, Tom," Vivien snapped.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Tom said, standing up.

"I just want you to stop acting like if you let your guard slip for two seconds, you'll do a fucking 360 and become a carbon copy of your dad."

"I'm not my father."

"It would be bloody weird if you were," Vivien retorted, "but that's precisely what I'm trying to tell you."

Tom ran his hand across his beard, torn between anger and amusement.

"Just ease up on the guard dog routine, that's all I'm asking," Vivien said tiredly, pushing her tumbled black hair back.

"Yeah, a bunch of bastards try to kill our child and I've to be all hey, come into my house, it's a free-for-fall."

"Don't be so ridiculous" -

\- "You do realise they're going to hang for this, don't you?" Tom said, taking an almost sadistic pleasure in making her face pale.

Vivien stared at him, shocked. "They're kids though, Tom," Vivien then said, her voice shaking. "I - I want to kill them too, but they're _kids_."

"They're old enough to hang," Tom said simply.

"Don't do this, Tom," Vivien said, backing away from him, thinking of Matt, of what he did, what he still could do. "Don't let hate turn you into a monster."

Tom studied her for a moment, his heart a battlefield of emotion. "I - I thought love gave me an edge over the enemy, but it doesn't," Tom then said brokenly, "it's just another name for weakness. I - I could have lost you, Vivien, you and our child, and I can't let that go. I can't let love weaken me, so they have to hang. It's as simple as that, and if you can't understand that, well that's your problem, not mine."

"Don't talk to me like I'm some Stepford drone, Tom," Vivien snapped.

\- "Isn't that what you are though?" Tom snapped back. "Compared to the rest of Charleston, you're cossetted and cocooned, your every wish and whim granted" -

\- "I'm not some pampered princess," Vivien retorted, "so don't make out I am. I remember how we used to live, on the run, home being wherever we could lay our head" -

\- "Preserve me from your quaint proverbs," Tom said, holding his hands up in a mockery of surrender.

"You know what, Tom?" Vivien said suddenly, viciously. "You can get the hell out of here - as of right now. I don't need this - I don't need _you_."

Tom stared at her, before flinging back his head and laughing, the sound striking her right through the heart. "You're barring me from your bed?" he said, grinning. "I've been living like a monk for months now, so let me assure you it'll be no hardship on my part to abstain" -

\- "Just get the hell out of my sight," Vivien snarled, rounding on him.

"It'll my honour," Tom said, making her a sarcastic bow.

* * *

Vivien pulled the duvet higher over her head, trying to drown out the sound of another day starting. The other half of the bed remained resolutely empty, Tom having taken Vivien at her word, sleeping in his office instead. Ever since he'd found out she was pregnant, he'd hardly spent a night away from her side, but not now. To Vivien, his absence marked the beginning of the end, yesterday's events merely emphasizing it even further. Soon Tom would have to choose what mattered most to him, his vision for the future or Vivien, making her doubt his love when she never had before.

Cochise had sent a note over, asking after Vivien's welfare, the incident involving Matt not mentioned, Vivien returning a note via Tector stating she was alright, but that Cochise should stay away for the time being, Cochise replying he would respect her wishes. She just hoped that he understood her request instead of just respecting it. It was done out of the desire to protect him, to stop him being dragged into the storm that had sprung up around her. But she feared he would see it as an affront, that he'd think his presence was resented and reviled by her.

She sat up, unable to endure it anymore, her hands shaking despite themselves. Whether she liked it or not, she had to face the day, even if it was only within her own four walls. The Doctor had advised that she rest, Tom stationing an array of armed guards outside their quarters. Nobody excepting Tom and those he had prior approved were allowed admittance. If she had to go outside, she was to be escorted at all times. It was the imprisonment Vivien had feared, but it was one she accepted against her will. But as she swung her legs over the side of the bed, her bare feet connected with something hairy, making her freeze in shock.

"Christ on a cracker!" Tom exclaimed, sitting up like a corpse freshly risen from the grave.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Vivien snapped, rage returning her to life.

"I'm not doing anything," Tom said irritably, trying to smooth down his rumpled suit.

Vivien stared at him. "Have you been there all night?" she asked him, her heart suddenly thumping hard in her chest.

"Nearly," he said, running his hand across his beard, "I snuck in when you were sleeping."

Again, Vivien just stared at him, and then she was suddenly in his arms, her mouth crushing his. Several long moments passed until they parted, Tom leaning his forehead against hers, his large hands sliding over her hips, before almost cradling her bump, his dark gaze dwelling on the swell of her belly. "I'm sorry," Vivien whispered, making him glance up at her, "I do need you."

"We need each other," he said quietly, "now more than ever."

_Take this sinking boat and point it home_  
_We've still got time_  
_Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice_  
_You'll make it now..._

* * *

Matt quietly closed the door behind him, his eyes red-rimmed, his face pale. Vivien clasped her hands in front of her, hardening her heart. She had spent her morning with Tom, neither of them mentioning the attack and its consequences, Vivien sitting in his lap, the two of them sharing a breakfast composed of kisses and cornflakes, something that would have sent the Doctor running for the sick bucket if he'd seen them. After Tom had left, she'd sent for Ben, apologizing for referring to him as a razorback. He'd just stood there, studying her, before suddenly rushing her, his hug nearly crushing the life out of her, Vivien wrapping her own arms around him, grateful she had her Ben back, not the stranger with odium in his eyes.

"Hey," Matt said in a small voice, tracing a pattern on the ground with his trainer.

"You heard about what happened?" Vivien asked quietly.

Matt nodded, tears welling up in his dark eyes, eyes the exact same shade as Tom's, making Vivien's heart clench painfully in her chest. She wasn't Matt's mother, but she loved him as if she was, and it hurt when he was hurting, their bond binding them together as much as blood would have.

"I know about what happened with Cochise," Vivien said, her voice so low to the extent it was barely audible.

"I didn't mean" -

\- "Are you going to throw a stone at me as well?" Vivien exploded. "Are you going to hurt the baby like these boys were going to? It doesn't matter whether you meant it or not, Matt, you still did it, and it _scares_ me, because now you've started, I don't know where it's going to stop."

"It... it stops now," Matt said, his voice shaking. "I promise."

Vivien looked at him for a long moment, gauging the sincerity of his words. "These kids you hang around with," Vivien then said tiredly, pushing the hair out of her eyes, "you'll stay away from them, do you understand? I don't care if they call you a chicken or whatever, you keep away from them now on, alright?"

Matt nodded again, his shoulders hunching.

"I'm not telling your father about this," Vivien said, her voice shaking now, thinking of those who were going hang, "he's beside himself as it is - if he found out what you've done, I don't know what he'll do."

"What, do you think he'd hang me as well?" Matt said, his eyes widening with a weird almost wonder.

Vivien stared at him, shocked. "You heard about that?" she asked, her hands shaking now.

Matt nodded for the third time.

"Christ on a cracker! Of course he wouldn't hang you!" Vivien snapped, tears springing to her own eyes. "I just meant he'd be very upset, more than he is already, and - and I just think it's better he doesn't know, alright?"

"But maybe I should own up," Matt said uneasily, "I don't like lying to him."

"Well, you can own up later, just not now," Vivien said, struggling to keep her temper.

"But what happens if Cochise tells him though?" Matt asked, shoulders hunching higher. "Or if somebody else does?"

"Cochise only told me because I made him," Vivien said, standing up, "but he doesn't want your father or anyone else to know."

"Why?"

"Because he's trying to protect you," Vivien said, coming over to him.

"But I hurt him," Matt said, frowning.

"But he doesn't hate you," Vivien said quietly, smoothing his blonde-brown curls back, "and that's a lesson humanity will never learn."


End file.
